Assessing the underutilization of supported employment services

Supported Employment Services (SES) are evidence-based practices that appear to be underutilized. This study evaluated the level of SES underutilization at both urban and suburban agencies that served people with psychiatric disabilities. Two hundred sixty-nine unemployed consumers indicated their intentions to accept a referral to SES in the next 6 months. The 54 practitioners who served these consumers indicated their intentions to refer these consumers to SES during that time period. The concordance rate between the consumers' and practitioners' intentions was 55%. Urban and suburban agencies did not differ in concordance rate. Forty-nine percent of the consumers intended to accept a referral but their practitioners intended to refer 21%. An underutilization rate of 28% was found for the combined agencies. The factors contributing to the consumers' and practitioners' intentions were also investigated. The low concordance rate between these consumers and practitioners may have been due to their different perspectives about the importance of the consumers' felt need to work.